Day of Ascension

Fearing the lightning vortex would disperse and cast them into the chaotic fissures of spacetime, Xu Ying hurriedly seized control of the Heaven Punishment Sword.

Dazhong quickly slipped into Jiang Qi’s ethereal void to examine his injuries, then sent a divine sense transmission.

“Ah Ying, his ethereal void is badly damaged. Many of his Dao avatars have been destroyed, his Primordial Spirit has been crippled, and his divine sense has been shattered. His physical injuries aren’t a problem; Mud Pill vigor can heal them. But damage to his cultivation realm will be hard to repair.”

Xu Ying said, “Don’t worry about that. Save his body first. Master Qi, help heal him!”

Yuanqi had turned into a large worm. He hurried toward Jiang Qi, but he turned into a salted fish before he could reach him, flopping weakly in the palm of the dragon-headed divine being.

Fortunately, Xu Ying controlled the Heavenly Dao Divine Artifact and passed through the lightning vortex, emerging beside a huge gaseous planet shimmering red, yellow, and white.

They had passed this planet earlier while riding the stone city. Many great fish, each ten thousand li long, lived within it and flew through its skies.

Xu Ying frowned, hovering at the edge of the planet. He didn’t know the location of Yuanshou Realm’s main continent.

“Master Qi, wake Jiang Qi as soon as you can. Otherwise, we’ll be lost in the starry sky,” instructed Xu Ying.

Yuanqi drew on the vigor of his Mud-Pill Secret Trove and sent it to Jiang Qi, helping heal his many physical injuries. Dazhong busied himself stabilizing Jiang Qi’s scattered divine sense.

With his divine sense in chaos, Jiang Qi would struggle to awaken. Regulating his divine sense would greatly aid his recovery of consciousness.

Xu Ying looked around, trying to find the way back to Yuanshou.

Then his gaze fell on the shoulder of the dragon-headed divine being. A hand was still hanging there: the hand of the Dragon Abyss heavenly god. Jiang Qi had cut it off earlier, and it had not fallen into the spacetime fissure.

Xu Ying went up to the shoulder, lifted the heavenly god’s hand, then flew back down onto the palm. He set the hand down and examined it.

The heavenly god’s palm did not have normal palm lines; instead, the lines formed patterns resembling bird-worm seal script.

Something isn’t right.

Xu Ying was surprised. Studying it, he whispered, “Are heavenly gods truly naturally born divinities? If they’re, then why are some of the bird-worm seal script markings on them wrong?”

He was utterly baffled. In that brief moment, he had already found eight miswritten characters among the bird-worm seal script on the heavenly god’s palm!

How could a natural creation have so many miswritten characters?

Heavenly gods were artificial creations!

Xu Ying was shocked beyond words. The heavenly gods who lived in the Heavenly Dao World, controlled the Heavenly Dao Divine Artifacts, governed the fate of all living beings, and held the path of ascension in their grasp were not natural divinities, but man-made gods!

And whoever created them doesn’t seem particularly well educated. They are probably martial-blind, thought Xu Ying.

Yuanqi said, “You can’t call someone who can write ‘illiterate’ an illiterate. Only someone who tries to write ‘illiterate’ but writes something else is a martial-blind.”

A group of ten-thousand-zhang-long fish inside the nearby gaseous planet discovered the enormous dragon-headed divine being and swam over, gathering around it.

These fish had long, wing-like fins. By beating them, they could soar through the air, but they could not swim beyond the atmosphere. No matter how high they flew, they could not leave the planet.

They were like fish trapped inside a glass sphere, staring through pairs of enormous eyes at Xu Ying and the others. They seemed eager to taste the tiny beings before them, but they just couldn’t break free.

Even Xu Ying felt uneasy under the stares of those colossal creatures. He was just about to step forward and help Yuanqi treat Jiang Qi’s injuries when a low hum came from behind them.

Xu Ying looked back and saw the lightning vortex, which had already closed, opening once again. “Damn it! The Dragon Abyss heavenly god is chasing us!”

His scalp went numb. He grabbed the heavenly god’s hand. “Open your mouth, Master Qi!”

Yuanqi opened his mouth without thinking. Xu Ying stuffed the heavenly god’s hand inside, then activated the Heaven Punishment Sword. The dragon-headed divine being charged straight toward the gaseous planet.

The great fish watching them wagged their tails excitedly, waiting for their meal to deliver itself to them.

Whoosh!

Xu Ying guided the Heaven Punishment Sword into the atmosphere of the planet. The great fish shook their heads and tails and charged toward him. One of them was particularly fast. It opened its enormous maw in delight, revealing row upon row of teeth as massive as hills.

He gave it no chance to chew. He drove the Heaven Punishment Sword straight into its mouth.

The great fish snapped its jaws shut, only to feel as if it had eaten nothing but air; it tasted nothing at all. The other fish also rushed over and were bitterly disappointed. One female fish was so furious that she lashed the first fish across the face with her tail before swimming off in a huff.

That great fish was also terribly disappointed. It shook its head and tail before sinking into the clouds below.

Just then, beyond the gaseous celestial body, the enormous lightning vortex churned. The one-armed Dragon Abyss heavenly god stepped out, a maple-leaf-shaped radiance shrouding his head and making his features impossible to discern.

He looked around, searching for Xu Ying and the others, and sneered. “By severing only one hand, you just revealed that you are at the end of your strength! No one can fool a heavenly god and walk away unscathed!”

His expression was vicious, and thunderous rage stirred within him.

Being gravely wounded by a human Qi Cultivator was one thing. However, he had also been deceived by one, lost an arm, and been frightened into fleeing in panic.

Fortunately, he had not gone far before regaining his composure and realizing that Jiang Qi’s sword strike had lacked any follow-through. Clearly, Jiang Qi’s injuries were even more severe than his own.

Thus, he had returned in a fury, determined to kill them. Yet Xu Ying and the others had already vanished without a trace.

The heavenly god activated his mystical power and opened the Heavenly God Eye at his brow. It resembled an eye growing from the center of a maple leaf, sweeping across the surroundings as he searched for Xu Ying.

His figure flickered, and he shot past the gaseous celestial body, heading toward Yuanshou Realm. “They must be headed to Yuanshou!”

A moment later, the Dragon Abyss heavenly god doubled back. He sized up the gaseous celestial body, his gaze flickering as he muttered, “The most dangerous place is the safest place. This place is closest to me, so it is precisely where I would be least likely to look.”

He carefully sensed his own severed limb. He could clearly feel that it was nearby, yet he could not find Xu Ying and the others. “Heh. Where have you hidden yourselves?”

The heavenly god slowly thrust his enormous head into the atmosphere of the celestial body. The eye within the maple-leaf-shaped radiance swept back and forth as he let out a laugh. “You are nearby. I can sense it.”

Suddenly, a great fish shook its head and tail and charged over. With a crack, it bit down on the heavenly god’s head, dragging him deep into the gaseous planet. It then opened its enormous mouth in delight and swallowed him in a single gulp.

The next moment, the fish’s head split open. The Dragon Abyss heavenly god shot into the sky, covered in blood and flesh, enraged beyond measure.

A mere fish had dared to toy with a mighty heavenly god. This was intolerable!

Then, he froze before letting out a low laugh. “I know where you are hiding! You are hiding inside one of the fish. Heh, what a fine plan. All I need to do is kill every great fish, and I’ll find you!”

His figure flickered, and he began slaughtering the other great fish.

Meanwhile, inside one of the great fish, Xu Ying controlled the Heaven Punishment Sword, carrying everyone deeper down its throat.

After flying eight hundred li, the view ahead opened up. Inside the fish’s belly was actually an entire world of mountains, rivers, and sky.

The sky was flesh-red, and in it hung an enormous bright pearl, likely a treasure condensed by the great fish. The pearl radiated scorching light and intense heat, illuminating the mountains and land below.

This landscape was filled with flowers, grass, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish, all living and reproducing within the fish’s belly.

Xu Ying put away the sword and dispersed the dragon-headed, human-bodied god. He looked down and saw that among the mountains and rivers, there were even villages and cities!

Around those cities and villages, there were even cultivated fields!

Humans were living inside the belly of this great fish!

Yuanqi clicked his tongue in wonder. Dazhong was also stunned, unable to understand why humans would be living here.

They landed in a town. When the townspeople saw them descend from the sky, they were all astonished and asked where they had come from.

Xu Ying told them, “We come from the Divine Land of the Yuanshou Realm. When we were returning to the Divine Land, we encountered enemies who were pursuing us. A fish swallowed us, and we stumbled into this place by mistake. Who are you?”

An old man with white hair told them, “Our ancestors were people of the Great Shang era. To avoid forced labor and taxes, our clan fled the prefecture. When we came to this planet, a great fish swallowed us. After discovering that its belly contained both heaven and earth, and that there was neither forced labor nor taxation here, we settled down.”

Yuanqi sighed. “Is fleeing into a fish’s belly the only way to avoid forced labor and taxes? Once, people hid in a fish’s belly to do that; generations later, others became snake catchers to escape the same fate. Has anything truly changed?”

Xu Ying and the others stayed in the town for the time being, devoting themselves to treating Jiang Qi’s injuries.

Before long, Jiang Qi regained consciousness. His injuries, however, were still severe. His Dao avatar had suffered particularly heavy damage, and more than half of his cultivation had been destroyed. For now, he couldn’t heal himself.

Seeing that his complexion had improved somewhat, Xu Ying asked, “Grand Preceptor Jiang, there’s something I don’t understand. The Heaven Punishment Sword shouldn’t have been enough to pull an existence as powerful as you from the marsh to Taiyi Little Profound Heaven. So how did you enter it?”

The sword could only bring some Qi Cultivators or Exorcist Masters of relatively weak cultivation into Taiyi Little Profound Heaven. Anyone stronger exceeded the sword’s limits.

As Grand Preceptor of the Great Zhou, Jiang Qi’s cultivation and strength had naturally reached the pinnacle. There was no way the sword could have brought him into Taiyi Little Profound Heaven.

Jiang Qi drew a rough breath and smiled. “I entered Taiyi Little Profound Heaven through Stone City. But who said I was already this powerful when I arrived in the city?”

Xu Ying was puzzled.

Though Jiang Qi lay there, his expression was relaxed. “When I arrived in the city, I was like you. Just a Qi Cultivator at the Transmutation Stage. I formed my Golden Core just last night.”

Xu Ying, Yuanqi, and Dazhong all froze. Xu Ying let out a breath of turbid air and said in admiration, “Impressive.”

Yuanqi was puzzled. “So, in a single night, you went from Gate-Knocking Stage to the Ascension Stage? You advanced through the second Gate-Knocking Stage, the Pagoda Stage, the Jasper-Pool Stage, the Divine-Bridge Stage, and the third Gate-Knocking Stage in less than twelve hours?”

A single night had passed since Stone City entered Taiyi Little Profound Heaven and subsequently left.

In that timeframe, he had reached the Ascension Stage, subdued a Heavenly Dao Divine Artifact, restored the Yin-Yang Vine, and fought a decisive battle against the Dragon Abyss heavenly god. That didn’t even sound possible.

Jiang Qi smiled. “Very simple. Origin Dao Essence.”

He took a breath and said, “I was originally an Ascension Stage Qi Cultivator. The immortal fire of the Other Shore burned away my entire cultivation, but I once possessed a solid foundation.

“For six thousand years, I stole immortal herbs on the Other Shore, accumulating an enormous quantity of immortal herbs inside me. By obtaining immortal Dao spiritual roots and absorbing their Origin Dao Essence, I could advance rapidly.”

With only a Golden Core and a Transmutation Stage cultivation, he entered Taiyi Little Profound Heaven and immediately began gathering immortal Dao spiritual roots without pausing for even a moment.

As his cultivation realm rose higher and higher, so did his strength. At last, when he reached the Jasper-Pool Stage, he realized that the essence in ordinary immortal Dao spiritual roots could no longer significantly raise his cultivation.

So he decided to subdue the Heaven Punishment Sword!

To attempt to subdue a Heavenly Dao Divine Artifact while at the Jasper-Pool Stage was nothing short of madness. Yet Jiang Qi actually succeeded.

After obtaining the Heaven Punishment Sword, everything else followed naturally. He used the sword to impersonate the Heavenly Dao and send his voice throughout the myriad realms, demanding that they return the immortal Dao spiritual roots and rebuild the Heavenly Path.

After the Yin-Yang Vine spiritual root was restored, the Origin Dao Essence he obtained helped him refine even more immortal herbs stored within his body. That gave him the final push he needed to break through to the Ascension Stage.

He used the sword to annihilate a heavenly domain, demonstrating his overwhelming power to the myriad realms and forcing them to surrender even more immortal Dao spiritual roots. Only then did the Yin-Yang Vine spiritual root finally stabilize.

Yuanqi was silent for a moment, then said, “In other words, when you entered this place, your cultivation was roughly the same as mine and Ah Ying’s?”

Jiang Qi managed a nod. “At the time, I was hiding deep within Stone City. I probably couldn’t have even defeated you.”

Yuanqi continued, “Back then, had you already decided to obtain the Heavenly Dao Divine Artifact, restore the Yin-Yang Vine, and reconnect the Heavenly Path?”

“Even before entering Stone City, I had already planned every step I would take after arriving here,” Jiang Qi replied.

Yuanqi sighed and murmured, “I feel like all these years of my life have been wasted on a dog.”

Dazhong said with feeling, “Perhaps this is why he could become Grand Preceptor to Emperor Zhou. We truly aren’t cut out to be Grand Preceptors. Master Qi, I also think all your years have gone to the dogs.”

“You’re the dog!” Yuanqi flew into a rage.

Jiang Qi broke into a coughing fit, then smiled. “I simply make my plans before I act. I may look reckless, but I never act unless I am confident of success.”

His schemes ran deep. From entering Stone City to seizing the Heavenly Dao Divine Artifact, then forcing the myriad realms to hand over their spiritual roots, every step had been precise.

Yet his ruthlessness was just as striking. He could use the artifact to destroy a world outright without so much as furrowing his brow. Even handing the Heaven Punishment Sword to Xu Ying had been a move made only after careful planning.

He knew that with his own strength alone, he could not activate the artifact and return to Yuanshou Realm. He also knew that the Dragon Abyss heavenly god would recover quickly. Then, the heavenly god would undoubtedly ambush him on the way back. In his current injured state, Jiang Qi had no chance of defeating it.

That was why he had handed the sword to Xu Ying, borrowing Xu Ying’s power to break the deadlock.

Xu Ying asked, “Grand Preceptor Jiang, what is the origin of the Dragon Abyss heavenly god?”

He had sensed that heavenly gods might be man-made creations, and so he had become interested in the Dragon Abyss heavenly god’s origins.

Jiang Qi hesitated momentarily before answering truthfully, “He was left behind in the mortal realm after the battle over the Heavenly Path and couldn’t return to the Heavenly Dao World. During that battle, many heavenly gods descended to the mortal realm and failed to return to the Heavenly Dao World.”

Xu Ying said, “Grand Preceptor Jiang, what I want to know is whether the Dragon Abyss heavenly god is a man-made creation.”